Those Nights
by Glory of Dawn
Summary: A collection of short stories I write to get my creative gears going. No main set of characters. Most will likely contain romance. Chapter Two: Naruto deals with severe feelings of loneliness.
1. Shut Up and Dance

**So this is my latest experiment in figuring out how to write more frequently. This fic will be a collection of things that I write – mostly one shots, but some of them may be connected or sequels or whatnot – with the intent of getting my gears turning. Everything here is first draft. There has been no editing. My rule is that as soon as I put down a period, everything before it stays. This serves the purpose of also helping me improve my writing skills, especially if you guys tear me a new one and point out every little thing I do wrong. Haha. Most of these will probably be in the Romance genre, but some may not be. I'm going to hop around characters, too, so don't expect to see just one pairing or whatever. And for my final thought, the length on these is not going to be a factor in whether they are published or not. Be it one thousand or ten thousand words, all will make their way here.**

**I don't own Naruto.**

* * *

**Those Nights, Chapter One: Shut Up and Dance**

Setting: AU

Main characters: Shikamaru, Temari

The phone rang. Shikamaru checked the caller ID; it was Naruto. His watch said that it was 7:32. That could only mean one thing.

He answered. "No, Naruto, I am not going clubbing with you guys."

After a second of silence, the blonde replied, "C'mon, Shikamaru, why not? You never go clubbing! Try something new!"

"Not a chance. It's too much of a hassle."

He heard someone – a woman – say, "Give me that." There was the sound of car doors opening and closing. Then, Sakura's voice came in clear through the phone. "What are you wearing?"

"What?"

"I shouldn't have to repeat that. It's a simple question. What are you wearing?"

"Pants."

"Yeesh. What's your shirt size?"

"Sakura, why the hell are you asking me this?"

"Just wanted to see if I guessed right. Have you showered today?"

"What are you, my mom? Get off my back." He hung up the phone. "Troublesome woman."

There was a knock at the door downstairs. Shikamaru started to roll off his bed when a terrible realization hit him.

"Dad," he groaned. "Don't answer that!"

"Sorry, son," his dad drawled back from downstairs. "Your mother is already on the way."

Shikamaru groaned again and got up to shut and lock his door. He picked his way back through his disaster area of a room and face planted back into his bed.

"Shikamaru!" his mother yelled. "Your friends are here!"

He grumbled into his pillow. He knew there was no way she would hear him. He didn't care.

"I'm sending them up with a key to your room! Make yourself decent!"

Multiple sets of feet came up the stairs. There was shuffling around his door, and then he heard the tumblers turning.

_Please don't let it be Ino, _he thought.

There was a knock at the door. One, two, threefour, five.

_Dammit._

The door opened. "Ugh, Shikamaru, your room is disgusting," Ino said.

"Go away," he said into his pillow.

"Nope. You're going clubbing. Now get up."

He didn't move.

"Come, Shikamaru! You must join us for a night in the joyous and youthful activity of clubbing!"

Of course they brought Lee.

"C'mon, Lee, get him up." That was Tenten.

Lee's arms wrapped around his torso and hefted him off the bed. Shikamaru went limp. He figured if he made it difficult, they would leave.

Well, more like he _hoped._ Sakura had sent in the diehard clubbers to get him.

"Well, at least he has jeans on."

"They look clean," Tenten agreed.

"How's he smell, Lee?"

"Shikamaru has most certainly showered today!"

"Thank God for small miracles," Ino said.

"All right, we got you a black button-up shirt. I know you have a black sport coat, where is it?"

Shikamaru looked at Tenten irritably.

"I could always just ask your mom," the woman offered.

He sighed. "Across the hall, in the armoire."

Tenten smiled and jogged out of the room. Ino finished de-tagging the button-up and started moving towards him.

"I can put it on myself," Shikamaru sighed, finally supporting himself with his legs. Lee let him go. Ino handed him the shirt, smirking. He scowled at her.

Tenten came back and handed him his sport coat.

"Do I have to wear that?"

"We need to dress you up, if you're going to get anyone's attention," Ino said. "It's not like you're going to look interesting, what with how you're always scowling."

Shikamaru continued a level glare at the coat.

"Fine. You're at least going, we'll take what we can get," Tenten said. "We'll drop the coat."

"Hair," said Ino.

"Oh, yeah, you can't go in wearing your hair like that. It's all messy and matted."

"We don't have time to overhaul it."

"Comb it out?"

"No," said Shikamaru. "I'm putting it up and we're going. I am not letting you give me a makeover."

"Oh, come on, not the pineapple," Ino flinched.

"I dunno, it could work," said Tenten. "What do you think, Lee?"

"I am simply overjoyed that Shikamaru has embraced the flames of his youth and -"

"Yeah, yeah, we get it," said Ino. "Grab a hair tie and let's go."

"I can't believe I'm doing this," he groaned. He put up his hair and began trudging down the stairs.

"Have fun, sweetie!" said his mom.

"Nngh."

"Find a cute girl," his dad called after him. "Make good choices."

"Don't start with that," Shikamaru said as he shut the door behind him.

"You're riding with Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke," Ino said. She moved on to the second car, giving Sakura a thumbs up as she walked by. As Shikamaru headed towards the back seat of Sasuke's car, he noticed that the second car was driven by Neji. Hinata was riding shotgun, looking longingly at the other car.

"The Pineapple, huh?" said Sakura as he got in. "That's bold."

"Shut up. I'm going, it doesn't mean that I'm going to like it." He rolled his sleeves up past his elbows.

"C'mon, Shikamaru! Don't be a party pooper!" Naruto practically yelled. "It's gonna be great! We always have a blast at the club!"

Neji was on the road, so Sasuke started backing out of the driveway.

"Tell him Sasuke! Even you enjoy clubbing!"

"Driving, idiot," he said, eyes firmly fixed on his destination.

Naruto settled back into his seat and nodded. "It's gonna be awesome. Believe it!" He pointed at Shikamaru when he said the last sentence.

"It's going to be loud, crowded, and hot," Shikamaru complained.

"Do you ever stop complaining?" Sasuke asked.

"No," Shikamaru replied.

"Why do we hang out with you again?"

"I ask myself that every time you rope me into something."

Sakura punched Sasuke's arm. "We hang out with him because he's smart and funny and we enjoy his company."

"Oh, right, I forgot about all of that."

"And because on the rare occasions he isn't complaining, he can be a very fun person."

"I can count the number of times that's happened on no hands."

"It's happened before!" Sakura protested. "He's great at movies!"

"Who isn't?"

"Will you two put a lid on it? You sound like my parents."

Saukura's mouth clamped shut and her cheeks erupted into red. Sasuke smirked.

Naruto was immediately and predictably irrited by Sakura showing signs of being infatuated with Sasuke and launched into some sort of joke to get her attention. Shikamaru paid it no mind and looked out the window. There weren't any clouds in the sky.

That was about as good an omen about the night as anything else that had happened today.

* * *

It took them about twenty minutes to get into the club after they got there. Shikamaru was ready when the noise started, but he still took a step back when he was struck by the wall of sound preventing anyone under a hundred pounds from entering. The group scattered in well choreographed directions as soon as they entered. Shikamaru wasn't exactly sure where to go, but Tenten grabbed his wrist and hauled him towards the tables.

"We're going to secure a good booth!" she yelled over the noise. "Most everyone else is going to get drinks, but Sakura and Ino are testing the waters of the dance floor!"

There was a corner booth that wasn't occupied, so he, Tenten, and Hinata staked a claim on it.

Shikamaru covered his ears and grumbled. His head was going to explode by the end of the night.

"What'd you say?" asked Tenten.

"I said I don't know how the hell you can stand all this NOISE!"

"You get used to it."

For the first time in his life, Shikamaru heard Hinata speak in something other than a loud whisper. "Or you go deaf," she suggested.

"Wonderful."

Naruto, Sasuke, Neji, and Lee came back, each of them carrying two glasses except for Lee, who had three. The drinks were passed out around the table, with two left at blank spots for Ino and Sakura.

"What is this?" Shikamaru asked, peering at the not-quite-distinguishable liquid in the dim light.

"Don't worry, it's not alcoholic, you big baby," Sasuke yelled.

"It's just a ginger ale," said Neji.

Shikamaru grunted and took a drink. It was good gingerale.

Sakura and ino came back to the booth.

"Well?" asked Naruto.

"Probably want to wait a minute," said Sakura. "It looks like a fight is about to break out. After that, we should be fine."

Sure enough, within a few minutes, three irate men were being dragged off of the dance floor and (presumably) out of the club.

"Yosh! Let us head to the dance floor!" Unsurprisingly, Lee's voice was hardly raised above its normal level, and yet was still completely auidble.

Everyone got up except for Hinata and Shikamaru.

"Why aren't you going?" he asked her.

"I don't like clubs," she said.

"Then why are you here?"

She blushed and looked away.

Shikamaru took pity on the poor girl and offered her an out. "Same reason I am, then?"

Hinata recovered slightly and nodded.

"How long have you been coming?"

"A month."

"Heh, you held out longer than I would have expected."

She didn't respond.

"Well," Shikamaru said, grabbing his glass, "I'm going to go find the quietest corner of this club and skulk there. Text if you need me."

Hinata nodded and he set off on his quest.

He gave the dance floor as wide a berth as was possible. He was positive that this building was violating fire codes with how many people were in there. He circled about the entire club. Most of it was just as loud as the rest. The bar and places too near to the dance floor were even louder. In the end, he settled on the hallway to the bathrooms. The walls provided some respite from the dull thud-thud-thud that permeated the rest of the building.

As he stood around, drinking his drink and wondering at how many thousand feet outside the building the noise stopped being audible, someone bumped into him.

"Watch where you're going," he said.

"Cram it, Pineapple." It was a woman who had bumped into him. She was tall, wore a black and purple dress, and had her hair in four short ponytails.

"That's rich, coming from the girl who's got four on the back of her head."

She didn't look at him as she continued down the hall towards the bathrooms. She did flip him off, though.

"Bitch," he muttered under his breath.

His phone vibrated. He checked and found that he had a text from Naruto. It read, "Loser! =P".

Shikamaru put his phone back in his pocket, shut his eyes, and imagined what he could be doing if he was literally anywhere other than this club.

"Back off, pig." It was the girl who had bumped into him.

"Oh, come on, I just asked if I could buy you a drink."

"was my answer not clear? Get out of my way."

"Hey, I just want to talk, there's no need to be so rude."

"Are you moving, or should I move you?"

"You know, I think you need a real attitude adjustment."

Shikamaru had heard enough. He sighed and walked down the hall. "Hey, man, the lady told you to beat it, so beat it."

The guy turned around and stared at him. "Who are you, her boyfriend?"

"So what if I was? You should still have enough of a brain to tell that no means no."

"Fuck off, dude. Mind your own business."

"Yeah, it's not like I can't take care of myself," said the woman.

"Now you listen -" started the man.

Shikamaru grabbed his arm and turned him back around. "Listen, there are two ways this goes. You either back off or I break this glass on your face. And that'll lead to stitches, blood loss, and a police inquiry for me, which is far too much of a drag. I'd really rather you just left."

"Beat it, guy, nobody wants you here," the woman said.

"Fine, you can have the bitch," the guy said as he stormed back out into the club.

"Thank God," Shikamaru said. "I really did not want to get into a fight tonight."

"Then you should have left. I could have handled him."

"So? It doesn't mean I shouldn't help if I can."

"That's exactly what it means."

"Fine, next time I'll leave you in the dark hallway with the creepy guy." He started to walk away. "Troublesome woman."

After a moment, she called out to him. Her voice was closer than it should have been; she had come closer to him. "Hey."

He stopped and looked over his shoulder. "What?"

She was moving towards him. As she passed him, she grabbed his arm.

"Hey, what the hell?!" he said as she hauled him off.

"Come dance with me."

"What? Weren't you just pissed at me?"

"You are mildly more attractive than any other guy I've seen tonight, even with that GOD awful pineapple on your head. So you're going to dance with me."

"Wha- no! I don't dance!"

She looked at him incredulously. "You're at a club, but you don't dance. Don't insult me."

She dragged him out to the dance floor. He didn't physically resist, but he did half-heartedly bitch the entire way there.

Once she had barreled her way past the fringes of the dance floor, she turned around and looked him in the eye.

"Dance with me," she said. And she started to dance.

"Come on, I don't -"

She rolled her eyes and clamped her hand over his mouth. "Shut up and dance, Pineapple."

He looked at her. She had a very severe look in here eyes. It reminded him of the look his mother got before she flew into a frothing rage. So he nodded and began dancing.

He felt like a total moron. He had no idea how to dance. He was just making random movements. He couldn't look like anything other than an idiot.

The woman laughed. "Not bad!"

"Don't patronize me."

"Take the compliment, ass!" she laughed again. "For someone who says he doesn't dance, you do pretty well!"

Shikamaru grumbled an awkward thanks that he knew she didn't hear. That said, her praise made him feel a little better about his dancing. He didn't change much about what he was doing, but he felt himself relax and loosen up a bit.

He didn't know how long they danced for. It felt like a very long time. Had you told him at the beginning of the day that he'd be at a club – and enjoying it – before the day was out, he probably would have looked at you evenly and gone to take a nap.

But here he was, dancing with a girl who was arguably quite attractive and feeling great about it.

After ages of dancing, she moved in closer and said, "I'm going to get a drink, do you want something?"

"No thanks," he said.

"I'll be back. Don't go far!" she wove through the crowd towards the bar and was gone.

Shikamaru found himself grinning like an idiot. He resumed an indifferent expression after some difficulty and stuck his hands in his pockets, only to find that his phone was vibrating. He checked it and noticed he had texts from more or less everyone in the group, the earliest of which was sent twenty-five minutes ago. He checked the time; he had been dancing for at least an hour.

As he went through the texts, he found that Neji, Hinata, Tenten, and Lee had already left, declaring the night a bust. Most of the texts were from Naruto, Sakura, and Ino, first wondering where he was, and then with increasing degrees of urgency that they needed to go.

The last text was from Naruto, so Shikamaru responded to him first. _Sorry man, I didn't feel my phone vibrating. Is it imperative that we go now?_

A few seconds later, Naruto responded. _Ino is puking her guts out. We don't know why. We've got to go._

_Can she hold on for just a minute? I need to talk to someone._

_Dude, she's been holding on._

Shikamaru growled at his phone. He reached into his pocket and dug out an old receipt and a pen. He quickly scrawled 'Emergency, had to leave' and his phone number. He grabbed the arm of the first person he saw – it was a girl with bright red hair.

"The fuck?" she yelled. "Let go!"

"I need you to give this to a girl with four blond pigtails in a black and purple dress!" he said back. !"Please, it's important!"

"You could have just asked, fucker!" she yelled. She snatched the receipt from his hand.

"Thank you!" he said, and he fought his way to the door.

_On my way._

_Just head to the car._

_Fine._

Shikamaru didn't talk much on the way back home. He mostly stared intently at his phone, waiting for it to ring or chime.

It didn't.

* * *

_One Week Later_

There hadn't been a call or text the entire week. At least, not from the girl, but he wasn't interested in them from anyone else. When Saturday came around again, Shikamaru was out of bed by eleven (which was unheard of, unless his mother was forcing him out). He moved around anxiously the whole day, evoking worry from his mother and sarcasm from his father. As the evening closed in, he put the black button-up shirt Sakura had gotten for him back on and rolled the sleeves up again. He pulled his hair into the pineapple and tucked his shirt into his jeans. He ran down the stairs, grabbed his keys from the basket, and yelled to his parents, "I'm going out, be back later."

"Be safe!" called his mom.

"Where are you going?" asked his dad.

"Club!" He said as he shut the door. The expressions he imagined on his parents' faces actually made him laugh out loud. He got in his car and started driving towards the club.

About halfway there, his phone rang. It was Naruto. He picked it up.

"What?"

"Hey, Shikamaru!" Naruto said. He sounded extra cheerful today. "It's club night! You should come again!"

"Already halfway there."

"Aww, come on, you know you had fun last time!"

"Naruto. I'm already halfway to the club."

"...Wait, what? Seriously?"

"Seriously."

He heard a slightly muffled Naruto say, "He's already on his way!" This caused several voices to erupt in chatter in the background, including a feminine, "Give me that!"

"Shikamaru! Are you seriously already going to the club?" asked Sakura.

"Why is this so hard for you to believe?"

"Uh, because we've been trying to get you to go clubbing for the past six months and you haven't?"

"Yeah, well, I've got someone to meet there."

"Did you meet someone there last time or something?"

"Yeah, I did, and I had to leave without her phone number."

"Oh, shit, I'm sorry! I'm sure if we had known, we could have gotten Ino-pig to hold on to her dinner for a few more minutes!"

"Whatever. I'll see you there."

"Save us a booth!"

"Not likely." He hung up.

The drive was agonizing. He turned on the radio, which was something he never did. He flipped through the stations aimlessly for a while, not really knowing where to go, before turning it back off and trying to find another way to distract his brain. He had to settle for squeezing the wheel intensely and drumming his fingers against it.

When he finally pulled into the club, he leaped out of his car and locked it without looking at it. He strode intently towards the door. He had left earlier than they had the previous week, and the line was shorter. He got in in just a few minutes. He immediately went to the bar, got a ginger ale, and then headed to the hallway to the bathrooms.

The ginger ale was gone in less than a minute. He stood there, leaning against the wall, arms crossed, and foot tapping impatiently. He had no idea if she was even going to show.

He stood there, stewing in his own mind and frustration, for what felt like years. No, years weren't long enough. Decades. Centuries. Ages. Epochs. Eras. At some point, he had shut his eyes and couched his hands together, with the glass resting in between them, in an attempt to calm himself down.

"So how long do you plan on standing there?"

Her voice startled him so much that he dropped the glass, and it shattered on the floor. "Shit!"

He looked up at her. This time, she was wearing a white dress with three purple moons on it. Her hair was in the same style. "And the same get-up as last week. Classy."

"Yeah, about that..."

She slapped him. "What the fuck? I went to get a drink, and when I got back, you were gone! What gives?"

He put a hand to his stinging cheek and rubbed it. "My friend started puking her guts out while we were dancing, and my ride was leaving. I tried to leave a note for you, but I guess it didn't make its way to you."

She squinted her eyes and made a 'what the hell' gesture with her hands. "Leave a note? In the middle of a dance floor? _How_?"

"Look, it was the best I could come up with with three seconds notice, okay?"

She pinched the bridge of her nose. "That is just the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

Shikamaru sighed and rolled his eyes. "Look, do you want to dance or not?"

She glared at him over her hand. "Fine. Come on."

He followed her out to the dance floor. They started dancing again, and it wasn't long before she stopped glaring at him and actually looked like she might be sort of enjoying herself.

They danced for forty five minutes, maybe an hour, before Shikamaru's irritation with the club started to seep in. Regardless of the company he was keeping here, this still wasn't his scene.

He leaned in closer to her and said, "Do you want to get out of here?"

"I'm not going home with you."

"Please, I don't want to go home with me either. The place is a drag."

She laughed and nodded. So, in a moment of unprecedented forwardness, he grabbed her hand and led her out of the club. He checked his phone. He had only been in there for a little under two and a half hours.

"Do you have a car?" he said when they were outside.

"Yeah."

"I'll drop you off back here afterward, then." He unlocked his car and held the passenger door open for her.

She raised an eyebrow. "Thanks," she said as she got in.

* * *

"Wow," she said. "Nice spot you've got here."

They were in the city park. There was a spot a little past the foot of one of the hills there with two oak trees. Since the top of the hill was usually crowded with screaming kids who wanted to roll down it, this was the spot Shikamaru frequented when he visited the park. It was far enough away that it was easy to ignore them.

"Yeah," he said, looking up at the clouds. "I come here to sleep sometimes."

She laughed. "Seriously? To sleep?"

"I sleep everywhere," he said, shrugging. "Sometimes staying awake just isn't worth the effort."

"Do you ever wake up with shit drawn all over your face, or your wallet missing?"

"Sometimes. Haven't lost my wallet yet, though."

She was quiet for a moment. "So why'd we come here?"

"Sunset soon. It's actually really nice, watching the sun go down behind the hill. It looks like a picture or something."

"Yeah? How long do you think we've got?"

"Eh, maybe twenty minutes before the light show begins."

"You know, I never got your name, Pineapple."

He exhaled sharply through his nose. "Shikamaru. You?"

"Temari."

He looked at her from his spot on the grass. She was sitting on a raincoat he kept in his car that he had spread out for her. "It's nice to meet you, Temari," he said. It was odd; he felt very earnest about that statement. He usually made it sarcastically, or at least irritatedly.

She smiled. "You too."

They watched the sunset together.

She kissed him.

They went on a second date the next day.

* * *

**And that concludes the first story of _Those Nights. _Hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Let me know what you think of it, errors you saw, and just in general things that I could improve on! Till next time!**


	2. Melancholy

**Those Nights, Chapter Two: Melancholy**

Setting: AU

Main Character: Naruto

"You aren't just going to stay here?" asked Sasuke.

"Nah," Naruto said. "I've got work in the morning. I need to be able to shower and shave and shit."

"If you say so. Be safe out there."

"For sure. See you guys around. Great game tonight, can't wait for next time!" He waved to all of his gathered friends. Sasuke and Sakura were there, of course, as was Shikamaru. Kiba and two of his little brothers were packing up their things. They waved back, and Naruto left Shikamaru's apartment.

He smiled. He had just finished twelve solid hours of nerding it up: straight up, old school Dungeons and Dragons. Their games were always enjoyable. This particular one had two characters go Gollum over a cursed diamond. The roleplaying of it was more than a little comical, and ended in Shikamaru's character being a naked zombie chasing Sakura's in an effort to retrieve the diamond.

Naruto unlocked his car, tossed his bag of books in the back seat, and started it up. He didn't mind that it was almost one in the morning; sure, the drunks would be about, but Naruto enjoyed driving at night. There was a certain calmness, a peace to it that wasn't there during the day. The car detected his iPod; it started playing Walk The Moon, about halfway through one of their songs. He started it over; he liked this one enough for that.

The song was, perhaps, not the best choice. His mind instantly leaped to women. It was a bit of a rough subject with him; he hadn't had any luck with girls before. Well, he had had a girlfriend once, and their relationship was four years long, but in the end he discovered how much she had been manipulating him, trying to pull him away from his friends and family. He hadn't taken it well, and they had broken up. Since then, though, Naruto had been having some trouble. He was the kind of person who was designed to be in a unit. His whole life got better when he had someone to love on. Since he had broken up with her, he didn't have anyone like that. He didn't even know how to move in the direction of getting a girlfriend again; he had forgotten how to interact with other women over the past four years.

He was back at the sidewalk outside of Shikamaru's apartment; a woman walked across his field of vision. She was crying, and dressed in pajamas. She had slippers on. No; she was wearing jeans and a tank top, with flip flops. But she was crying for sure.

"Hey!" he called out. "Are you all right?"

She didn't respond.

"Do you need a ride somewhere?"

She stopped, turned around, and looked at him. He couldn't quite tell what she looked like; her face was shrouded in darkness. She nodded.

"C'mon, my car is right over here," he said. "I'll take you wherever you need to go."

Before she could respond, she was gone; so was the apartment building and the sidewalk. Naruto was left with just his car, the road, and Mystery Skulls. He hadn't noticed the song change; it was about a quarter of the way through Ghost, now. He sang along half-heartedly. He still didn't know the words to the second verse, and there weren't much in the way of lyrics outside of the verses. He didn't sing along for long.

Naruto sighed and got onto the on ramp. His imagination had a tendency to get away from him and just take over. There hadn't been a girl at the apartment building.

He saw her walking down the side of the highway. She had a coat on this time. He kept driving. She disappeared again.

Naruto slumped back in his seat. He knew it wasn't particularly safe in the event of a car accident, but he didn't care. There weren't any other cars on the highway at this time anyways.

Arthur and Vivi danced through his mind. Irritated, Naruto skipped to the next song.

Of course it was Cascada. Because Every Time We Touch was exactly the song he needed to hear right now.

He didn't skip it. He didn't know why.

A van passed him on the road. A white and red dog wearing glasses looked out of the window at him. Naruto blinked and the van was gone.

He pressed his hand onto his face and rubbed at his eyes. Being tired and having an overactive imagination was not a good combination. He just needed to get home.

An exit ramp jumped out in front of him. In a moment of panic, he hit his turn signal, but then he realized it wasn't his exit. He still had a couple miles to go. He turned the signal back off.

Naruto looked up into the sky. It was cloudy; he could hardly see the moon, much less the stars. Silently, he prayed he'd meet a girl soon. He needed someone to be with.

He blinked, and he was almost home. He didn't know when he had covered the distance; he must have gotten lost in thought. A girl danced around his vision. Aerosmith commanded him to Dream On. It wasn't encouraging.

"I'm home, dad," he found himself saying.

Silhouetted against the window, he saw his dad give him a thumbs up. Naruto went to his room, dropped his bag, and got on his computer.

He checked his email. He checked some of the webcomics he subscribed to. He started to watch a video game review, but it was for a PS4 exclusive. He didn't have a PS4. He turned the video off. He looked at his computer screen for a few moments more before he turned it off, stripped down to his boxers, and got to bed.

He turned off his lamp and looked at the wall for a minute before rolling over. There was a space next to him in the queen sized bed. He looked at it for a long time. The bedding on that side was immaculate; it had never been slept in. Naruto always slept on the same side of the bed. He shut his eyes and continued to look at the other side of his bed.

There was a woman there. She had brown hair – or was it red? – and eyes that shifted from blue to green to brown. The only thing that remained static about her was the soft angles of her face, the fullness of her lips, and the loving look in her eyes. She wore one of his T-shirts. The blanket covered up to just above her breasts. He knew that her feet were just inches above his own. Her hand was in the small space between pillows. Naruto put his hand on top of hers, pretending for a desperate moment that he felt something there other than the sheets. Her mouth started to move, but no sound came out. He couldn't read her lips. He tried to squeeze her hand; instead, he felt bunched up cloth. The illusion shattered, he opened his eyes. The other side of the bed was just as empty as it had been when he had gotten in.

He didn't cry.

* * *

**Yeah, it's short. But I felt like I needed to write this. If you're here wondering about the next chapter for Tsumeki-chan, it's in progress. I haven't been able to work on it a ton because I'm working on three final projects right now. I'll try to have it up by the end of the semester, but no promises.**


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